Abstract

The diagnosis of bronchial asthma on an allergic basis when symptoms appear for the first time late in life should be made with great caution. Only 12 to 18 per cent of all cases have their onset in the fifth and sixth decades and less than 2 per cent after the age of sixty.1 It is during this period of life that many of the conditions which must be considered in the differential diagnosis of bronchial asthma first make their appearance and all of these should be ruled out before the presumptive diagnosis of allergic asthma can be made.

PLOTZ M. ASTHMATOID HEART FAILURE; A FORM OF LEFT VENTRICULAR FAILURE AND ITS DIFFERENTIATION FROM BRONCHIAL ASTHMA BY CIRCULATION TIME AND OTHER CRITERIA1. Ann Intern Med. 1939;13:151–160. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-13-1-151